SEEK, Stepstone, and Malt: news of the recruitment marketing industry

Did you think that just because it was February oozing into March that our industry would slow down? Well, if you did, you were wrong! Acquisitions and funding continue apace, and companies from outside the industry (think WeWork) are moving into the space – literally. So let’s see what’s happened lately:

Jobvite gets and spends money: Jobvite has picked up an investment of more than $200 million, and it will be using the money to acquire three smaller companies focusing on different aspects of the recruitment process: Talemetry (which specializes in recruitment marketing); RolePoint (for employee referrals and in-company moves); and Canvas (a text-based conversational bot to get the screening process started). The combined company will have 2,000+ customers. Impressive.

Malt raises cash: Paris-based freelance platform Malt has landed $25 million in a funding round led by Idinvest, with participation from existing investors, ISAI and Serena, Maddyness reported. The company will use the capital injection to expand to two new countries, Germany and the Netherlands. Launched in 2014 in France, Malt has since then also expanded to Spain where it currently has some 10,000 registered freelancers. In total, the platform boasts 100,000 registered freelancers and 15,000 key account customers. Wow.

Bayt considers IPO, expands into U.S.: Bayt.com, the Middle East’s largest online marketplace for jobs, may go public in the next couple of years, depending on market conditions. the site, which raised $3 million (Dh11m) from an undisclosed fund in Jordan in 2000 – its only funding round – plans to spend $25m in the next year to expand operations in North America. An “IPO is a possibility but it depends on market circumstances to a large degree”, said CEO Rabea Ataya. Timeline and modalities have not been decided, but he said that it is “reasonable” to say it would be within a couple of years. One to watch.

SEEK buys GradConnection: SEEK, the Australian job board giant, has acquired Sydney-based graduate job marketplace GradConnection. The acquisition will see SEEK buy 100% of the start-up for an undisclosed sum. According to the Australian Financial Review, GradConnection was launched in 2008 by New Zealanders, Mike Casey, Dave Jenkins and Dan Purchas, who came to Australia to launch a graduate job website. The aim of the acquisition was to bring jobseekers into SEEK’s environment even earlier than they already do and keep them in its portfolio of services their whole careers. Smart move. The company has also announced that it will be investing more in early-stage startups.

Stepstone moves into Poland: Axel Springer-owned job board StepStone.com has announced plans to launch in Poland in the second quarter of 2019. The site will be available at StepStone.pl. The site will be brought to Poland by StepStone and Ringier Axel Springer Media. Both companies have established a joint venture to build a strong market presence together. Interesting.

WeWork adds skills-based profiles: WeWork, the co-working leader, has always offered its members the opportunity to connect via the WeWork app in a relatively unstructured way. With a new round of updates, WeWork is giving users the chance to offer up their skills to other WeWork members who may be looking for a freelancer or service provider. The company has added new fields for members to include their skills and interests. The interests portion will allow WeWork to customize programming based on location, so that a building with a high number of people interested in mindfulness (for example) can have access to specific programming in that field. Very interesting.

Recruit revenue is up: Recruit Holdings reported revenue rose 6.0% in its fiscal third quarter ended Dec. 31. The fastest growth took place in the Tokyo-based company’s “HR Technology” segment, which includes job board Indeed and recently acquired Glassdoor. Revenue was up 48.4% in this segment during the quarter. However, staffing revenue outside of Japan fell 7.4% to ¥190.3 billion (US$1.72 billion) in the third quarter. Hmm. Recruit also just launched a $25 million investment fund for blockchain.

Jobcase closes $100M round: Jobcase.com, an open-access platform dedicated to empowering people in their work-lives, has closed a $100 million in growth equity round led by Providence Strategic Growth (PSG). Recently ranked as the fourth largest online destination for career resources in the USA, Jobcase serves more than 100 million registered members with over 25 million unique active Jobcasers visiting the site each month. In addition to direct services offered on Jobcase.com, Jobcase technology powers over 100 career-related sites. That’s a lot of cash.

Fairygodboss raises cash: Fairygodboss, a Glassdoor-like platform aimed at helping women find female-friendly workplaces, has announced today that it has raised $10M in series A financing co-led by GSV Accelerate and Signal Peak Ventures. The crowdsourced platform went live with around 100 reviews and, now, counts tens of thousands of company reviews and more than three million monthly visitors to the site. Congrats!

NovoJob buys AmalJob: NovoJob, a jobs site present in several countries of Africa, has bought a Morocco-based job board AmalJob. With this acquisition, it plans to become Morocco’s No. 2, following the dominant player Rekrute.com. NovoJob founder Oussama Esmili said with the acquisition the site hopes to get a stronger footing in the Moroccan market. NovoJob arrived to Morocco in 2017 and is also present in Algeria, Senegal, Benin and Cote d’Ivoire.

Interesting, eh? Whether you’re looking to buy or sell, it seems that the market may well be interested in you! Until next month…